It's Not Too Late
by huffleclaw22
Summary: Ersan (or Surnie) fanfic...I finally decided to try this out after hinting at this ship in my other fics. A heartbroken Susan runs into Ernie at a muggle coffee shop, two years after her devastating breakup with Justin via an owl letter telling her he'd run off with some French muggle. Brief Nevannah mention (bc I'm obsessed OK!) Please enjoy and review! :)


**A/N:** Quick one-shot. This is me stepping out of my Nevannah zone because I also really like the Ernie/Susan and Susan/Justin ships. So I'm going to take a crack at it because I've only hinted at them in my other fics. I used to ship Susan/Justin after seeing Chamber of Secrets, but then when I found out Hannah ends up with Neville (which is totally genius by the way, JKR rocks my socks), I also liked the idea of Ernie with Susan-(In most of my fics I use the Ernie/Susan ship). I think after the second wizarding war Justin would have gone back to his muggle lifestyle even though he was a wizard and ended up with a muggle. Sooo...this fic is sort of going to cover my views on this potential love triangle.

* * *

1999.

19 year-old Susan Bones left her office on the second level of the Ministry of Magic, after a long day on the Wizengamot. Ever since the murder of her dear Aunt Amelia while she was still in Hogwarts, she'd aspired to become a Wizengamot member to honor her late aunt.

She enjoyed her job and her life was going well, but she couldn't help feeling like something was missing. That something was Justin Finch-Fletchley, the guy who she'd fallen deeply in love with and dated from her second to sixth year at Hogwarts.

Then everything had changed before going into their seventh year, all muggleborns were banned from coming back to Hogwarts, and Justin was muggleborn. He'd been forced to go on the run from snatchers to avoid being locked up in Azkaban.

Justin did not return for the Battle of Hogwarts, and the last time Susan heard from him was via owl a few weeks after graduation. Susan tried to recall exactly what the letter had said, she remembered it going something like this;

_Susan,_

_I heard about that battle at Hogwarts, I wanted to come back but it was too dangerous at the time. I'm sorry for not writing sooner, but I've been on the run. I ended up in Paris, France and met this really sweet French muggle girl...I'm not really sure how you're going to take this, but this-us-isn't really working out anymore. We're two different people with two different lives, it was fun to dabble in the magical world for awhile, but I've decided to resign to my muggle ways. I sincerely hope that you will understand, it's been great._

_~~Justin_

_p.s; enclosed is a picture of this really cool mime, if you ever get the chance to go, Paris is awesome!_

Susan locked her office door, shaking the heartbreaking memory from her mind. She tucked a stack of papers under her arm and walked to the elevator, it was late at night, she liked working late because truth be told, she was very lonely. Sure she had Hannah Abbott, her best friend, but it wasn't what she needed to fill the gap in her life.

She entered the elevator and pulled the lever, sending it zooming upwards at a nauseating speed to the eight floor atrium. "Have a good night Ms. Bones," Minister Kingsley Shacklebolt waved farewell. Susan managed a small smile "You do the same Minister," she said, pulling out her guest pass to use the telephone booth.

Once back up on the London streets, Susan decided to go for a late night cup of coffee at the local muggle diner down the block. She hid behind the bushes and waved her wand, changing out of her Wizengamot robes and into regular muggle clothes.

_Dad says witches and wizards don't drink muggle coffee... _Susan opened the door and let the freshly brewed coffee and sweet dougnuts smell hit her full force, inhaling it. She often enjoyed going here because it was the one place where no one knew who she was, no one had to know her name, or that she had magical powers.

"Excuse me, can I get a coffee please-?" she asked the man behind the counter, pulling out her muggle money.

He nodded "Coming right up." Susan slid some money across the counter and he put it in the cash register. She waited off to the side until her coffee was ready, then sat down alone at a table in the back.

Susan sipped the warm coffee and opened her copy of _The Daily Prophet. _She didn't really see anything all that interesting, so she closed it and grabbed the novel she'd been reading out of her briefcase.

_In the late twelfth century Merlin slayed the great dragon-_

"Merlin eh?" a voice snapped Susan back into reality, she looked up to see a man about her age with darkish blonde hair and bright emerald eyes. He looked awfully familiar, of course, it was Ernie MacMillan-a friend of hers and Hannah's while they were all in Hufflepuff together at Hogwarts.

"Ernie? What're you doing here? I haven't seen you in like...two years!" Susan smiled.

"Yeah, after graduation I went off to work at the Ministry of Magic in Germany, but now I've come back to work on the Wizengamot," Ernie replied brightly.

"Oh really? I've been on the Wizengamot since graduation, I was inspired because of Aunt Amelia and I wanted to follow in her footsteps," Susan said.

Ernie grinned "Brilliant! We'll be working together then. It's truly wonderful to see you, but if I might ask, what's a pureblood witch like you doing in a muggle diner?" he asked.

Susan laughed "It's nice, peaceful even. No one knows me, what I've been through, the fact that my family's nearly extinct...and I could ask you the same, Mister I- Come-From-Nine-Generations-Of-Witches-And-Warlocks ."

Ernie chuckled and sat across from her. "Hey, you're not the only one who likes the serenity of muggle coffee shops," he replied.

Susan shut her book and put it back in her briefcase. "I suppose I'm not then," she smiled.

"So do you still talk to Hannah?" Ernie asked curiously.

"Like, every day!" Susan laughed.

"Oh really? What's she been up to lately?" Ernie wanted to know. "It's been so long since I've seen you guys," he added.

"Well, she's working behind the bar at The Leaky Cauldron and she's dating Neville Longbottom, that's pretty much all you've missed," Susan replied.

"Neville of Gryffindor? Really? How'd that go down?" Ernie chuckled.

Susan shrugged "Dunno, it just did. Like Hannah told me, but it's really complicated," she giggled.

Ernie smiled mischeviously "Oh no Suz, now I've got to know!" he exclaimed, shaking her arm playfully across the table.

Susan giggled "Okay but don't you dare tell her I told you. They kinda sorta have had crushes on eachother for awhile and a few weeks ago Neville finally asked her out, she was so excited she wrote me a three page letter _and _talked my ears off when I visited her at Leaky after work one night."

Ernie laughed "Holy mackarel, wouldn't ever have guessed, but now I can totally see it..." he said.

Susan smiled, sipping her coffee again. "Aren't you going to order a drink?" she asked.

"Excellent question, and great idea. Excuse me I'll be right back," Ernie grinned, getting up from his seat and going up to order a drink for himself.

_What's going on here? If I didn't know better I'd say he's flirting with me, no it can't be... _Susan mused, watching her old friend speaking quite verbosely to the muggle man behind the counter as he ordered a coffee.

Soon enough, Ernie re-joined her with his own coffee. "So, how're things in your life since I've seen you? I heard about Justin running off with that French muggle girl," he admitted sheepishly.

Susan cocked an eyebrow "How'd you know?, I never mentioned that in a letter, remind me to smack Hannah will you-?"

Ernie held up a hand, laughing. "No, no don't get mad at Hannah. It wasn't her, it was actually Justin...he is my best friend you know, or atleast _was._"

Susan's expression softened "Oh, sorry," she giggled nervously, twirling a loose strand of long red hair between her fingers.

"I did talk to Hannah, all she said was that you were pretty broken up about it, but that was after I told her I heard it from Justin. It sounded pretty rough, I'm sorry you had to go through that Suz," Ernie said.

"Yeah so am I. I'm just trying so hard to forget I ever loved him so much, but the thing is, I can't. I have this empty void in my life that makes me feel so lonely all the time, this is going to sound awfully desperate-but I really need a man," Susan admitted.

Ernie laughed, taking a swig of his coffee. "You're right, that does sound just a tad on the desperate side, but I totally understand."

Susan rolled her eyes "Just a tad does it?" she asked.

Ernie nodded "Well I best be off, as it's very late, but keep something in mind will you-?" he asked, starting to get up.

"What's that Ern-?" Susan asked, curiously.

"It's never _too late_. I'll see you around Suz," Ernie said, dropping a piece of parchment on the floor as he left the diner and disappeared into the dark night outside.

_What the bloody hell is he playing at now? _Susan bent over to pick up the parchment, noticing scribbled writing on the front of it. She held it up to the light and squinted to make out Ernie's scribbled handwriting;

_Suz_

_Great seeing you tonight._

_I had a lot of fun, I'm glad we ran into eachother here._

_Let me know if you want to, er, you know...get together sometime._

_~Ern_

_p.s; as more than friends ;)_

Her eyes widened in shock, she opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again. "Merlin's beard Ernie..." she muttered, shaking her head with a big smile spreading across her face. _Now that I think about it, Ernie's always been up there in my fancies, I was just too obsessed with Justin to notice him..._


End file.
